"Aristide, who has been living in exile in South Africa with his family, announced his offer to return to Haiti in Johannesburg yesterday, according to international media outlets.

’As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity,’ Aristide said."

At first, the piece lays out a largely truthful history of Haiti/US relations, but later descends into half-truths and outright propaganda. I have composed rebuttals to the ones that I found especially objectionable:_________________

"The ousting of President Aristide by a military regime in 1991 led to a new wave of Haitians headed for the US."

In her account, Buschschluter neglects to mention that in the 1991 regime change in Haiti, the US backed the military intervention--General Raoul Cedras later retired to Panama with a "golden parachute" courtesy of the US. So the "wave" of dispossed Haitians was on account of CIA support of the military junta and by proxy the death squads.______________________________

"While he enjoyed the support of the Clinton administration during his first term of office, allegations of corruption and links to the drugs trade during President Aristide's second term made for a rocky relationship with Washington.After an uprising against President Aristide in 2004, US forces returned to Haiti, this time to airlift him out of the country."

Enjoying himself is not exactly the way most would put it, in light of the conditions that the Clinton administration imposed on Aristide for his return. Especially in light of Washington's insistence that Aristide reconcile, negotiate and empower the elements in Haiti that had ousted him--in other words, his enemies.

On a personal note, I can attest to the fact that Aristide did not have an "enjoyable" time when he was in Washington under the "protection" of the Clinton administration after the first military coup d'etat. I and another family member had lunch with Aristide at his apt/bunker, while attending a protest march by Haitians in DC in the early 90s. If he was enjoying the largess of DC so much, why did his hands start to shake uncontrollably while holding his knife during lunch? And there was no avoiding the guy who peered at us across the hall as we left Aristide's apartment. Arguably, the man was only making us aware of his presence (his headset indicated that he had been listening to our visit from across the hall) because he was charged with protecting Aristide from his invited guests.

The lies about Aristide being involved in the trafficking of drugs aren't anything but a smoke-screen for the inevitable interventions from Washington--too tiresome to defend. The "conventional wisdom" goes like this; Haiti should be controlled because it is a major avenue for drugs. The right-wing echo chamber has already started the drumbeat--see "Things to Remember While Helping Haiti."

"An intense earthquake has devastated Haiti, the number of injured and dead, and the damage, far exceed that country’s ability to cope. Millions of men women and children are likely lacking adequate food, water and shelter.

Haiti’s need for assistance of all kinds is clear.

At such a time when the need to provide assistance should be first and foremost, certain crass and craven individuals have other less honorable things in mind.

It is disgusting to report this , but people who publish such things need to be exposed, so that they may be repudiated in public."

Interestingly, in his opinion piece dated January 13, Jim Roberts suggested that President Obama appoint former Presidents G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton to head Haiti relief efforts. The next day, rumors circulated that Obama would be making the formal announcement that Bush Jr. and Bill Clinton would be tapped for the job, prompting David Sirota to Tweet:

Obama's appointment of George W. Bush to head Haiti Relief is a clear indication that Candidate Obama was just mouthing a platitude when he said that he wanted to move past the "mindset that got us into Iraq." George W. Bush's political legacy is the "Bush Doctrine"-- a doctrine of pre-emptive war and war crimes. In light of Obama's escalation of the "war on terror"; the continuing violations of the Geneva Conventions, in particular, the drone and missile air strikes that amount to "collective punishment" because so many civilians are killed in relation to so-called "terrorist", evidently a corrosive mindset is also part of the "Obama Doctrine."More on the Buschschluter BBC story:_________________

"Mr Aristide accused the US of forcing him out - an accusation the US rejected as "absurd".

With the crisis averted, US interest in Haiti lessened. A UN-led mission took over from US troops in June 2004 and continues to be present there."

"The election of President Obama and the nomination of Bill Clinton to the post of UN envoy to Haiti, combined with a period of relative political stability, led to a strengthening of US-Haitian ties."

Close ties but not in a way that is positive for Haitian democracy and sovereignty. The US financed Haitian elections and a close source tells me, asked Rene Preval to run for President?

Also, The Buschschluter is not being candid, she is glossing over the fact that the UN was brought in to "stabilize" Haiti--only after the "int'l community' caused the chaos! The US, France & Canada (see the Ottawa Initiative) destabilized Haiti, then by virtue of their oppressive, unbalanced power as voting members of the UN Security Council--brought in a brutal (proxy) military occupation to "protect its interests" and squash resistance and democracy.

It's almost laughable the propaganda that passes for "news" in the mainstream media. The BBC had some shred of integrity for real investigative journalism (ex. Greg Palast)-- but this tears it for me. Is it any wonder that newspapers are going out of business, and increasingly people are depending on blogs, political PACs and unembedded journalists for the truth?

People are waking up to the fact that they cannot trust the media to tell the truth and increasingly they are doing their own research to fact-check stories like this that masquerade as journalism but are in fact littered with propagandist spin.

The Obama administration will likely not welcome a return of Aristide, given the tepid response from Secretary Clinton on news that Aristide's party Fanmi Lavalas has been barred from participation in scheduled Congressional and Senate elections in Haiti.

While Fanmi Lavalas Haiti's most popular party was barred, Guy Phillipe's Front for National Reconstruction was approved to run in the elections by Preval’s election council. Guy was trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador. Philippe and former death squad leader Louis Jodel Chamblain lead "rebels" who were the muscle for the coup d'etat machinery which ousted Aristide in 2004.

"A leader of one of the many community organizations affiliated with Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas and who spoke on condition of anonymity stated, “It’s clear to us that Obama and Preval never really intended to arrest Philippe but only wanted to send him a message to shut his mouth. While Fanmi Lavalas has been barred from the next elections in 2010, Philippe’s party has been accepted to run by Preval’s election council. Now Philippe openly holds an FRN meeting in the capital…where’s the DEA? He’s right here if they really want him. Obama and Preval are hypocrites.”

Thank you PB for making me aware of this excellent documentary on the UN occupation. Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil Jean Baptiste (Jean Ristil SURVIVED!) are the intrepid photo-journalist who documented these events.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I can't imagine how it must feel as a nation to have to depend on the same people who have shown themselves time and time again to be against your very survival as human beings? Oh, what am I thinking, as a black american , I can TOTALLY empathize! I have nothing but the utmost compassion for my haitian brothers and sisters~

""Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain."

thank you for this information. A week later and our people continue to die. I see more military pigs on the streets than doctors and I think "good job to the rest of the world" You again, have officially been duped. This time in an excess total of 210 million dollars worth of donations. When will my people find relief? When?

This is for the above poster or for perhaps the blogger, are u saying that the money people around the world have donated(I'm one of them, I did donate to Wyclef Jeans's Yele organization), will not get to haitians?

Thanks for giving. Many people watching the continuing lack of real medical help for those in Haiti who desperately need it are distraught and angry. I understand their feelings. It is very distressing to see so many people are not getting the medical help they need, especially when so many have mobilized to help Haiti.

More Haitians continue to die and I heard CNN estimate that 20,000 may be dying per day because medical help is not getting to them. So deaths after the earthquake could amount to more than occurred during the quake. Supplies, doctors, CARICOM and others offering aid have been turned away, while the US deploys the military. The US has a well equipped medical ship in Haiti's harbor - they only sent out two doctors to help Haitians. The medical ship had no orders to assist Haitians who need medical care.

Michele Chen of racewire.org has written a couple of informative pieces on the mishandling of the aftermath of the earthquake:

There is something wrong with the mindset that will hype security concerns and ignore the suffering of human beings in order to push a political agenda.

Evidently the stated US foreign policy towards Haiti and US aid to Haiti is destined/designed to fail. We are not being told what the real agenda is.

Most Americans have been and are generous, kind and supportive of Haitians in this darkest of hours and in their continuing struggle, but the American gov't is not on board with that sentiment.

One can only conclude that we have officially been duped when one sees the outpouring of aid, resources and good intentions, yet witness so many Haitians continuing to die. Helping people is not the goal when one sends the military. The goal is empire and hegemony.

Kudos to the American people and other countries who are helping Haitians, down with empire building.

Thank you so much for preaching the truth and rectifying these absurd, popular lies. When I first discovered that Obama put Haiti's recovery efforts in the hands of Bush and Clinton, I was so devastated I was like, "OH...NO." Those monies will not even TOUCH Haiti! The most that they'll do is throw a little somethin here and there just to make it seem as if they care as Americans but it will go straight into their pockets and business interests. That is why I only risked donating to YELE, a fund owned by a Haitian-born man who genuinely cares for his people. And as for Bush and Clinton, like the late Frederick Douglass quoted: "They would not call it slavery but some other name. It has been called by a great many names, and it will call itself yet by another name; and you and I and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume, in what new skin this new snake will come forth.”

Libra- Frederick Douglass was the US' first Ambassador to Haiti. He never was one to mince his words. He spoke truth to power like he had nothing to lose. He was fearless. Would that I was a tenth of the person that he was.

The Price of Sugar (2007)
In the Dominican Republic dispossessed Haitians are under armed guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, most of which ends up in US kitchens. Cutting cane by machete, they work 14 hour days, 7 days a week, frequently without access to decent housing, electricity, clean water, education, healthcare or adequate nutrition.
Link to full length movie here:The Price Of Sugar

Edwidge Danticat – Reknown author:

Association of Haitian Journalists:

BOYCOTT the Dominican Republic as a rogue nation for making apartheid legal in the Western Hemisphere. Demand international sanctions and that Haiti's government STOP all trade/commerce with the DR and deport the DR ambassador and staff back to DR, recall its ambassador and staff from the DR IMMEDIATELY. Sign the petition

Lynching is an old U.S. Jim Crow method of terrorizing the African-American community. Lynching has been revived by ISIS.

Haitians are the least violent people in the Caribbean. Nations such as the colonized DR have 4 times more violence, larger militarized forces, more foreign owned property and lots of pedophile tourists and prostitution. US' colonization of the DR since the failed 1963 independence struggle, has made Dominican women the 4th most trafficked prostitutes in the world (after Brazil, Thailand, and the Philippines).

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The Seizure of Haiti by the US: A Report on the Military Occupation of Haiti and the

History of the Treaty Forced Upon Her

Issued by The Foreign Policy Association

Endorsed & distributed by The National Popular Government League - April 1922

"Every material statement made in this document is derived from the Official Report of the Hearings before a Select Committee of the U.S. Senate pursuant to Senate Resolution 112, authorizing an inquiry into the occupation and administration of the territories of the Republic of Haiti..."

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Haitian Peasants Against Monsanto

A large demonstration of at least 10,000 farmers had occurred in central Haiti on Friday, June 4. organized by "Mouvman Peyizan Papay" or MPP, the peasants and a contingent of youths from the capital marched for three hours to the town of Hinche to protest the American multinational company Monsanto and demand the burning of 475 tons of roundup ready genetically modified seeds the company was trying to "give" Haiti.